Oriented skin ellipse grossing
The article deals with small oriented skin ellipse grossing.
Punch biopsies and unoriented skin ellipses are dealt with separately.
Introduction
These specimens are very common.
Protocol
- Name and patient identifiers on the requisition match the specimen container.
- Specimen labelled as: "[ ]".
- Specimen received in: [formalin/fresh].
- Type: oriented portion of skin measuring [ ] cm [lateral/medial/left/right/superior/inferior/anterior/posterior/proximal/distal] x [ ] cm [lateral/medial/left/right/superior/inferior/anterior/posterior/proximal/distal] (in the plane of surface), by [ ] cm (depth).
- Orientation: [long lateral, short superior].
- Inking: resection margin blue [lateral/medial/left/right/superior/inferior/anterior/posterior/proximal/distal] and green [lateral/medial/left/right/superior/inferior/anterior/posterior/proximal/distal]. †
- Lesion: [ brown ] colour, [ diffuse / patchy] with a [ regular / irregular ] border.
- Lesion dimensions: [ ] x [ ] cm (in the plane of surface), by [ ] cm (depth).
- Margins: [ ] peripheral cm, [ ] deep cm.
Serially sectioned with cuts perpendicular to the long axis and submitted in toto:
- Block A1 - tip [lateral/medial/left/right/superior/inferior/anterior/posterior/proximal/distal].
- Block A2-A(X-1) - remainder of specimen.
- Block AX - tip [lateral/medial/left/right/superior/inferior/anterior/posterior/proximal/distal].
Protocol notes
- † One should avoid black ink if there is any suspicion of melanoma or if the lesion is pigmented. This can be remember by black is bad and green is good!
- In general, green and blue are the preferred marking ink colours as they are easier to see at the time of embedding.[1]
Alternate approaches
See also
Related protocols
References
- ↑ Lester, Susan Carole (2010). Manual of Surgical Pathology (3rd ed.). Saunders. pp. 312. ISBN 978-0-323-06516-0.